OpenAI has replaced chief revenue officer Denise Dresser after just nine months on the job, tapping Wiz president and chief operating officer Dali Rajic to take on the role.
The move comes as part of a broader shake-up in the organisation in the last month, which has seen the departures of COO Brad Lightcap, and the company’s number two executive, CEO of AGI deployment Fidji Simo.
OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman has taken a larger role in management following Simo’s departure, and announced Rajic’s arrival today in a blog post. Wiz, Rajic’s previous employer, was acquired by Google for $32 billion this year in the tech giant’s largest-ever acquisition.
“Denise has led our revenue organisation through a formative period for the business and has worked tirelessly to get the team to where it is today,” Brockman wrote. “The way we’re deploying this technology is changing rapidly, and Dali will turn what we’ve learned into repeatable execution as we build out the full system to make AI broadly useful for people and businesses.”
OpenAI says its products reach more than one billion weekly active users, and two million businesses. Despite the incredible growth and its powerful models, however, executives have suggested both privately and publicly that the company hasn’t hit all of its revenue goals.
The company says it has filed confidentially with the SEC ahead of a potential IPO, but it’s not clear when that will take place. Private firms often try to round out their executive ranks ahead of a public markets debut. OpenAI purchased $7 billion worth of shares from employees this week in a tender offer that allowed them to cash in on some of their equity compensation, which may suggest a delay in the public offering.
Bloomberg News’ coverage of the change-up referenced an OpenAI blog post that said the company needed to have a “relentless focus” on “measurable business impact,” but those comments appear to have been removed from the published version.
However, this year CEO Sam Altman has spoken about focusing the company on enterprise deployment and cut back on technology projects and experiments seen as distracting from that goal.
What it means
For the teams building and selling these tools, the shift signals a move away from rapid experimentation toward strict commercial targets. Rajic brings experience from a company Google bought for $32 billion, suggesting a focus on scaling sales processes rather than just generating hype. The purchase of $7 billion in employee shares this week hints that a public listing might be delayed, leaving the company to manage its growth under private market rules for now.
